Plain and simple
by just delete this account
Summary: They're not bad for each other, Hiccup wouldn't say that but at the same time they weren't well suited for each other either… he knows it, Astrid knows it everyone in the village knows it, heck maybe even Toothless knows it. So, why does he still stay?


Based on a tuffcup pic on deviant art entitled Night time ritual.

This story is already up on DA but all the tuffcup fics seemed to be there so I wanted to try and encourage them here at ff as well.

enjoy ^^

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The door opened…scratch that, it practically got busted inwards, hit with so much force it bounced off the wall and nearly hit the person who seemed to want to tear it from it's hinges. However before the innocent piece of wood managed to smack it's attacker in the face, a metal prosthetic foot blocked it and halted it's momentum abruptly.

"Ow!"

Hiccup yelped in pain as the action sent unpleasant tremors through his metal foot that went all the way up to what remained of his aching, flesh and bone leg. Momentarily stunned by the sudden twinge, he started to reach for his knee before remembering that he was holding a candle(in a holder of course) in one hand and reaching across with the other could cause him to topple over. He scowled and in pain but still in a very sour mood, the brunette half stomped, half limped away from the door, practically slammed down the candle holder on the small table beside it and just about threw himself down on his bed.

"Ack! Son of a- Augghh!!...Odin give me strength…"

The green eyed man muttered, trying unsuccessfully, to calm himself down.

With a heavy sigh, he ran a hand through his hair and pressed a palm over his eyes, rubbing them gently to ease out the irritation that ran in potent doses through his veins.

Hiccup doesn't get aggravated that often but when he does, he could get so severe some people would go running for cover. Oh well, you know what they say about nice people, seemingly harmless but legitimately scary when they're angry.

Slowly, he took a deep calming breath and let it out in the form of another heavy sigh.

"Thor's hammer, that man is impossible…" he muttered as he thought back to the source of all his frustration. Well, maybe he wasn't the only source but he certainly supplied most of Hiccup's resentment.

He and Tuffnut had gotten into yet another pointless argument earlier that day and Hiccup, who had already been having a bad day, having fallen off his bed that morning due to waking up to a nasty cramp in his right calf and spending the rest of the morning and all afternoon experiencing phantom pains and aches in his left leg due to the cold weather, had finally reached breaking point mid argument and snapped at the taller man for all he was worth. As you may have guessed, Tuff who was known for having a significantly short fuse and even shorter patience, snapped back and things did _not_ end well. After an impressively long yelling match, Hiccup, who was on the verge of wanting to call Toothless and send him after the blond man, stormed away before he could attempt to murder him himself and went straight home.

As soon as he walked through his front door, his leg seemed to hurt worse and it only added to his infuriation until he felt like hitting anything that could withstand the blow and remain completely unscathed. However, he was a pretty damn sensible person and though he was pissed off beyond belief, he had enough good judgment left to know that he'd most likely cost himself more damage if he were to attack any inanimate object(he may have grown out of the feeble, wiry, clumsy build he had when he was younger but still, he tended to revert to his astounding clumsiness whenever he didn't pay enough attention to what he was doing) and before he got too tempted to let frustration win over logic, he decided to just sleep the anger out and promptly stomped upstairs to his room.

With a small grunt, Hiccup let himself fall backward on his bed while his feet remained planted on the floor. Green eyes gazed at the wooden ceiling blankly as the brunette tried to remember specifically what they had been arguing about in the first place.

He frowned. He can't even remember. But whatever it was, he knew it was something stupid.

His frown deepened as he considered once again the fact that the two of them were so… _different_, so contrasting that they find something to disagree upon practically every week. They fight over everything, from stupid, insignificant little things to big serious issues. Several times they ended up not speaking to each other for an entire week and there had been few instances when the bad-tempered, aggressive blond viking had almost, _almost_ raised a hand to him. They're not bad for each other, Hiccup wouldn't say that but at the same time they weren't well suited for each other either… he knows it, Astrid knows it everyone in the village knows it, heck maybe even Toothless knows it(Toothless was quite an intelligent dragon and he wouldn't put it past the night fury) and yet they still stay together. And here he was, wondering yet again _why_.

Tuffnut was tactless, borderline insensitive, impatient, quick-tempered, stubborn and short-sighted. They were complete, total opposites, they have very little in common, they fight over everything and most times, without even trying, Tuffnut can rile Hiccup up like nothing and no one ever had before.

…but even now, teed off as he was with the blond, he knew he wouldn't consider even the mere thought of leaving the other man.

His frown morphed into a soft, thoughtful expression and he sat up.

Why_ does_ he still put up with Tuffnut? How can he stand it?

"…I'm just stupid I guess…or crazy." He murmured to himself.

Why was he even thinking about this? This happens every time, eventually things would go back to normal and that'd be that…until the process starts all over again. Hiccup released a weary sigh and he reached up to rub his forehead tiredly. Gods he was tired and thinking about this isn't helping at all. Almost instantaneously, he decided to get to the sleeping he planned to do earlier and forget about everything. He was just stressed, that's all. He had a long, bad day and maybe rest was just the thing he needed.

Mechanically, he pulled his vest off his shoulders and peeled off his tunic. He threw the two articles of clothing carelessly to the side as he stood up to detach his prosthetic from his leg. As soon as the artificial limb was off, a memory and a nagging feeling of loss came rushing forward to the front of Hiccup's mind. He landed heavily back on his bed from the loss of balance and the realization that he'd forgotten that he was supposed to press a hot cloth against his amputated leg every night to avoid soreness and he'd forgotten because ever since they got together, it had been Tuffnut's self appointed job to remember for him.

Hiccup frowned deeply as the feeling of something missing, coupled with some misplaced feelings of guilt and sadness welled up in his chest.

He shook his head to clear them away but to no avail, his mind had a nasty habit of bringing up every other memory connected when it brings up only one. Once it started, it'd be a continuous chain. So right now, the blond idiot was stuck in the forefront of Hiccup's mind and try as he might, he couldn't get rid of it.

He reached down and gingerly touched the stump of his left leg, seeing in his mind's eye the way Tuffnut's large, rough hands cradled it every night, massaging it ever so gently and pressing the hot cloth to it as if he were handling the most fragile piece of crystal on earth.

Something twinged in his chest as he recalled with stunning clarity, the look of concentration that would come over Tuffnut's face, as if what he was doing was of utmost importance and the soft, tender kiss he would place on his knee and lastly the warm, uncharacteristically gentle look he always gave Hiccup after he was done. The images in his head went on in a never ending loop, only getting clearer and clearer with each repeat.

"Okay brain, I get it and I admit it, I miss him already."

He grumbled to himself as if that'd stop the memories and the longing.

"You miss who already?"

Hiccup practically jumped out of his skin in surprise and he looked up to see that he had forgotten to close his bedroom door and through the dim light of the candle on his bedside table he made out a tall, hulking figure with long, pale blonde hair that stood out in the darkness standing within the door frame. For a second he didn't recognize him but only for a second. He blinked once and he saw as soon as he re-opened his eyes that the figure in his doorway was no other than the very person he's been thinking about standing there, shirtless for some reason, with a basin of steaming hot water in his hands and a plain white cloth draped over it's rim.

His jaw dropped open but no words came out. For a second or two, his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, then realizing that he looked ridiculous, he promptly shut it and turned away, reminding himself that he was _supposed_ to still be mad at the blond Viking in front of him who had begun smirking infuriatingly at the look on his face just a few seconds ago.

"What do you want?" He grumbled, face still averted.

"Well someone has to take care of that leg. You didn't think I'd let you suffer just because we had a fight did you?" Tuffnut replied.

Hiccup turned and gave him a look, a look that clearly said _I'm still mad at you_.

"Awwe c'mmon, you're not still mad are you?" Tuffnut asked, completely complacent as he strode into the room like it was his own.

Hiccup looked up at him sternly, trying not to pay attention to the steaming basin of water in the taller man's hands and the fact that he still remembered and he still came even after the huge fallout they had just a few hours ago.

"Oh come off it Hic, _I'm_ completely over it."

He said, taking a few more steps until he was standing directly in front of Hiccup and looking down at him with slate gray eyes.

Narrowed green eyes met them squarely as Hiccup crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly.

For a few seconds they just stared, Hiccup austerely and Tuffnut in unruffled passiveness. He seemed convinced that nothing absolutely nothing was wrong and they should be acting completely normal like nothing happened at all and this only seemed to infuriate Hiccup further.

Eventually the taller man sighed and knelt down in front of Hiccup. Hiccup contemplated resisting when he set down the basin he was still holding and reached for one of his hands with both of his but decided to just remain immobile but pliant, neither accepting nor resisting.

"I'm sorry, ok?"

He murmured with a gentleness only Hiccup knew he was capable of and let go with one hand to lay it gently on the smaller viking's knee.

"You were just in a bad mood because of this right?"

He asked, large, warm, calloused hands already moving to massage the sore stump of his left leg gently.

Hiccup's eyebrows raised in surprise. He didn't expect Tuffnut to notice that at all. Not that the blonde was dumb, it's just that he wasn't exactly the sharpest sword in the rack. And sure he's been with Hiccup for a while now but he rarely showed signs of knowing what bothered the green eyed Viking and what makes him tick.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. To be honest, I don't even remember what we were fighting about."

With each stroke of his fingers against his knee, Hiccup felt whatever was left of his irritation at the blond Viking slowly dissipitate.

The brunette remained silent as the taller Viking cupped the back of his knee with one hand and laid the other one gently on his thigh, right above his knee. Then, in a move that made Hiccup melt a little bit inside(just a bit…tiiiny bit…honest…really) Tuffnut lifted Hiccup's leg slightly and pressed a feather light kiss on his knee.

And just like that, the last speck of irritation got washed out of his system and was replaced with only warm fuzzy feelings that made his chest swell with something and a look of gentle awe or something remarkably close to come to his face.

Silently, the blonde pressed his cheek against the side of Hiccup's knee, careful not to put too much pressure on it and looked up at the smaller man with probing slate eyes, expecting him to say something.

Hiccup met his gaze levelly and let out a soft sigh through his nose.

"Yeah, I don't remember either…So, guess we might as well just forget about it and move on."

A wide smile broke out on Tuffnut's face and he pressed another kiss to Hiccup's knee.

"Sounds good."

It came to Hiccup then, why or how he managed to over look all the bad and just keep going despite all the bumps their relationship hits so often.

It's because of this, the little things he does that are so incredibly sweet, Hiccup can never stay mad at him for so long. It's the simplicity of the fact that despite everything else, all the disagreements and fallouts, Tuffnut cares for him as much as he does for the blond Viking.

He stay with him because he's just him… plain and simple


End file.
